Rollerblades are Cool Again

My kids got a bunch of cash this past Christmas. I thought for sure they’d want to spend it on video games or Kindle apps. But, they surprised everyone when they asked if they could purchase rollerblades, pads and helmets! I know, right? My kids actually wanted to play outside. I…was…shocked…

Last week, I decided to take them to the local skate park. You know, so they could learn all those cool tricks I used to watch all the hot guys do when I was in high school and rollerblades were cool.

We arrived around 4pm. The park wasn’t too crowded, but there was a nice amount of high school aged kids already there (no surprise there). There was one kid Brody’s age, but Layla was pretty much on her own. She was out in the park for 5 minutes when she went down a small incline and landed on her right elbow. She was out for the duration of the day.

Brody, on the other hand, took a hard spill within the first five minutes, shook it off, and went about skating. He watched the older kids as they grinned the rails and jumped in the air while holding the bottom of their skates. I could tell Brody was mesmerized.

He asked me to come out and take some photos of him attempting to act like the older kids. I maneuvered my way through smelly teenagers and up on top of a ramp where I could get a good shot. Brody readied himself at the top and down he went! Flawless. As he approached the next ramp, he lost his footing and fell right on his tailbone and back.

Screaming in pain, he said he was done. The older kids cheered him on as they had all become quite impressed by his skills. But, he’d gotten up the first time he fell; this was just too much. He was ready to go home.

The moral of the story? Rollerblading is a thing again. Oh, and if you fall, you should probably get back up.